Compiler: Ismay
Editor's Note: As regulatory winds turn mild and infrastructure gradually matures, stablecoins are quietly becoming the core component of the next-generation payment network. This article focuses on payment giant Stripe's latest strategic layout - from restarting crypto payments, acquiring Bridge and Privy, to building a stablecoin "full stack" covering frontend wallets and backend clearing. This is not just a technological iteration, but Stripe's collective bet on the future of programmable money. It releases an important signal: the popularization of stablecoins may not originate from crypto natives, but be primarily driven by traditional tech giants like Stripe.
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Stripe is steadily building an unparalleled stablecoin infrastructure.
The payment giant just announced the acquisition of popular wallet infrastructure provider Privy, another major move in its return to the crypto field - driven by the potential for explosive stablecoin growth.
If you're not familiar with Stripe, it's a payment platform serving half of the Fortune 100 companies and 78% of projects on the Forbes AI 50 list. Last year, Stripe processed a total payment of $1.4 trillion, a year-on-year growth of 38%. In comparison, Stripe's revenue growth rate is seven times that of S&P 500 constituent companies, indicating its strong coverage in mainstream business. In other words, it is the "ideal candidate" we hope can drive stablecoin adoption.
This Privy acquisition follows the grand Bridge acquisition - Stripe's largest acquisition ever. These two deals clearly signal that Stripe is seeking to control the full technology stack of "stablecoin native payments" and "programmable money".
Let's see what cards Stripe holds.
What Privy Brings to Stripe
Privy provides a set of tools to polish the "rough edges" of the crypto world, especially in wallet user experience.
Developers can embed crypto wallets directly into their applications through Privy's Software Development Kit (SDK), and users can quickly create wallets using familiar methods like email or social accounts, greatly lowering the entry barrier for crypto products.
According to the acquisition announcement, Privy has currently served over 1000 teams, totaling 75 million accounts, and processed billions of dollars in transactions. Its customer list includes core players in the crypto field like Hyperliquid and Farcaster.
For Stripe, Privy and its previously acquired Bridge are naturally complementary. Privy packages the originally complex wallet infrastructure into a "plug-and-play" Stripe-style component, together with Bridge's stablecoin solutions, building a complete stablecoin payment toolchain.
In other words, Stripe can now provide services across the entire crypto stack - frontend wallet tools through Privy, and backend stablecoin clearing and transfers supported by Bridge.
Bridge: Backend Engine for Stablecoins
Bridge, acquired by Stripe in February this year for $1.1 billion, provides three core services that developers can access with just a few lines of code:
Transaction Orchestration: Helping enterprises achieve stablecoin transfers, custody, and collection, with Bridge handling compliance and regulatory requirements.
Stablecoin Issuance: Enterprises can issue their own stablecoins through Bridge, with reserves invested in US Treasury bonds, and interest earnings shared with the issuer.
Cross-border Transfers: Supporting account opening for USD and EUR and global fund transfers.
Bridge has demonstrated strong practical application value: Starlink (through its parent company SpaceX) used Bridge to stably remit its Argentine income back to the US; Nigerian users paid for YouTube Premium and ChatGPT subscriptions through Bridge; US small and medium enterprises also use Bridge to accept global stablecoin payments without facing traditional international banking system complexities.
Since being acquired by Stripe, Bridge has expanded rapidly. Currently, its "stablecoin financial accounts" cover 101 countries, with enterprises able to hold USDC and USDB (Bridge's own stablecoin) balances and support receiving funds through traditional banks and crypto networks.
Additionally, Bridge recently collaborated with Visa to launch the world's first stablecoin credit card issuance product. Using this solution, financial technology and crypto companies like Ramp, Squads, and Airtm have begun issuing Visa cards directly connected to stablecoin wallets, allowing users to spend stablecoin balances at over 150 million Visa-supported merchants globally.
Full-Stack Bet: Stripe's Stablecoin Path
Stripe's connection with crypto spans a decade, experiencing multiple attempts and retreats. As early as 2014, Stripe launched Bitcoin payment functionality but terminated support in 2018 due to high price volatility. In 2019, Stripe joined Facebook's Libra project (later evolving into Sui and Aptos) but ultimately chose to exit.
The reasons for each retreat were similar: price instability, immature infrastructure, and unclear regulations. However, the current US government's changing attitude towards crypto assets (especially stablecoins) has altered this situation. Stablecoins pegged to the dollar, programmable, and highly liquid, possess both the stability of fiat currency and the flexibility of cryptocurrencies, increasingly gaining support from the US regulatory system.
Stripe's recent product expansion reflects its confidence in this trend. In 2024, Stripe reopened crypto payments after a six-year pause, supporting USDC reception through Solana, Ethereum, and Polygon networks. Its collaboration with Coinbase also supports crypto payments on the Base network and enables direct conversion between fiat and crypto assets within Coinbase Wallet.
Now, with Privy handling wallet infrastructure and Bridge providing stablecoin backend services, Stripe has achieved comprehensive front-end and back-end control of the "programmable money" technology stack. In the past, stablecoin popularization was often limited by infrastructure gaps - enterprises wanted to integrate crypto payments but struggled to guide users, while users were deterred by complex wallet experiences.
These barriers are now being systematically eliminated by Stripe. For stablecoins, this might be the true "tipping point".
Stripe's influence extends far beyond the crypto sphere, deeply serving mainstream commerce, e-commerce platforms, and enterprise software ecosystems. By simplifying stablecoin integration to "adding a payment method", Stripe has the potential to significantly accelerate its adoption in a still-niche market.
Ultimately, Stripe is not just "buying infrastructure" but is personally constructing a "programmable money underlying network" compatible with fiat currency, cryptocurrencies, and AI applications. After years of conservative exploration, Stripe's truly comprehensive full-stack investment may accelerate the transformation process of stablecoins from crypto natives to the global mainstream financial system.
